Like some kind of monolith, it looms over the Museum Reach, consuming 1.34 acres of prime real estate at West Ninth Street that would be perfect for an apartment building.

Its architecture bugs me.

The thing looks like a posh retirement home pulled straight out of Key West, Fla.

And its timing is irksome.

In 2009, when the Museum Reach opened to the public, I remember officials billing it as a linear park for locals.

There's a River Walk that's already home to hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, and this was not supposed to be it.

Having a midrise hotel as one of the first major developments might set a bad precedent in an area that's poised to become a new neighborhood that downtown so desperately needs.

For these reasons, I can't help but conclude that two sets of city regulations — one upcoming, the other just an idea — coming along partly to prevent another Wyndham Garden, which is being built by the partnership Paradigm Hotel SA Riverwalk.

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The CityDesignCenter, a new city department, has been tasked with crafting design guidelines for infill development on private property.

“We're trying to protect downtown's sense of authenticity, which means using local materials, local forms and shapes, things that are uniquely San Antonio,” said Mark Brodeur, executive manager at CityDesignCenter, said.

Now, the city has not identified the Wyndham Garden as the impetus for the guidelines. But even if the hotel had nothing to do with them, the architecture standards would prevent these kinds of mismatched, aesthetically unpleasant buildings from happening.

“As we see new developments being built recently, those buildings could have been built and dropped in any community in Texas,” Brodeur said. “We want to recapture developing buildings that have a sense of San Antonio's authenticity.”

The guidelines could be ready for public feedback in April or May, and be formally adopted by City Council in June or July.

Then there's the possibility of regulating hotel development in certain parts of downtown. This was a recommendation of the Center City Strategic Framework Implementation Plan, which is the city's blueprint as it moves forward with its ambitious plans for downtown.

Enter residential.

The goal of Mayor Julián Castro's downtown plan is to add 7,500 new residential units in the center city by 2020.

No area is as fertile for new residential buildings — preferably apartments — than the Museum Reach area, also known as River North.

Tim Sanford, a principal at Paradigm, did not return an interview request for this column. But in 2012, when the hotel first hit the radar, he said the Museum Reach needed the balance that a hotel could bring — there are more than 1,200 residential units planned for the area.

He might be right. But, for me, it goes back to the timing.

The Pearl recently announced plans for a hotel, right at the end of the Museum Reach. But at least it contributed more than 300 apartment units first.

Normally, regulations of this sort — prohibiting certain types of development and dictating how allowed structures must look — rubs me the wrong way. But the city must do all it can to craft the downtown San Antonio deserves.